


Swapping Spouses

by Kimmy



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: ...the fact i wrote this instead of sleeping may present in the quality, Alec Feels, Alec Lightwood Deserves Nice Things, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Reality Show, DON'T WORRY IT'S NOT JAGNUS DIVORCE, Divorce, Fluff, How Do I Tag, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Married Couple, Meet-Cute, Multi, Parenthood, Protective Jace Wayland, Protective Magnus Bane, Reality TV, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:48:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23450473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kimmy/pseuds/Kimmy
Summary: Magnus is sleepy and potentially tipsy and alone at home... so he signs himself and Jace on for a reality show about swapping wives for a week. Except there are no wives and too many husbands.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood/Jace Wayland, Magnus Bane/Jace Wayland
Comments: 7
Kudos: 76





	Swapping Spouses

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Takara_Phoenix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Takara_Phoenix/gifts).



> Happy belated Phimmyversary!  
> I know I still didn't finish the last year's fic but be grateful for what you got, okay?  
> I watched a reality TV show last night and got REALLY invested into this poor woman with a shitty husband and the couple trying to show her she needs to dump his ass... so my brain went POLY! And then I wanted to pitch this to you but I stopped myself - why should I pitch another idea to Phoe that I won't write and will only tease her with? But then I grabbed my laptop at 23:48 and started writing and this happened. It's not peak literature but it's something, it's finished, and hopefully cute. Enjoy!  
> Disclaimer: The similarities to real people are not accidental but not meant in any way harmfully. This work is inspired by an episode of a polish reality TV "Swapping Wives".

It starts like this: Max is sleeping and Magnus is watching trash TV waiting for Jace to come home from work. He laughs and enjoys himself more than he thought and he only had a glass of wine but maybe it was young wine, because when a banner at the bottom of the screen displays a website, he grabs his phone and signs them up. It’s not like they’d get selected. Then he falls asleep, and by time Jace comes back and kisses him awake he forgets all about. So of course, they get selected. 

The show is “Swapping Wives”. It’s still rather heteronormatively named, for a show that just decided to add some queer couples to it, especially when the word “spouse” is right there. But obviously, neither of them is really a wife, so they have to decide which one gets to stay and which one has to go. And because Magnus was the idiot who landed them in this situation, Jace decides Magnus has to go. Jace, while admittedly having to deal with some other dude stepping into his husband’s place, gets to stay with Max at least. 

What they expect is the entire reality show bullshit, writing down rules, talking into camera, showing themselves in front of the country’s trash TV audience. What they don’t expect is Alexander Lightwood. 

At first Jace thinks - how different can other people’s life be? It’s not like he’s swapping with someone straight. It’s another two guys with a small, adopted son, living in the same city, in the same reality. Their lives should be similar, right?

Then Jace realizes that maybe the title of the show isn’t that inaccurate. Even in his same sex marriage, Alec is the traditional, obedient wife. And on his behalf, Jace is pissed. Mostly because he sees Alec get defensive, and project his husband's hobbies onto himself, and denying it all the more as he slowly watches how different Jace’s and Magnus’ life is. When Alec lets it slip that his husband’s mother only visits the kids for Christmas because she doesn’t remember their birthdays, Jace sincerely hopes Magnus is giving the Lightwood family absolute hell.

“You’ve got a problem with it.”

Alec is sitting on the sofa, looking both at home and alien in his and Magnus’ space, behaving like a caged animal and a pouncing lion simultaneously. Jace feels like attack is Alec’s defense and Jace’s job is clearly what he grabbed onto. 

“Yes, I have a problem with it! What kind of an example will you give your son, working as a stripteaser? How does your husband even know you love him if you undress for stranger women every night?!”

Something snaps in Jace at that, because God, Alec is the one to talk.

“I don’t know. Does my husband, who I share my household chores with, sleep with and have a child with, know I love him more than some random chick I see for twenty minutes in my life? I have no idea. How do you know if your husband, who doesn’t remember your son’s birthday, is away hiking for a good part of the year and expects you to do everything in your own household know if you love him? Oh right, you're acting as his servant. I’m sure that shows your devotion.” He exhales, trying to ignore Alec’s genuinely conflicted expression. “I know this may sound hypocritical right now, but can I trust you to take care of Max? He’s asleep, I actually work this goddamn striptease at night to be with him as much as I can, so please. Will your highness kindly allow me to go to work?”

Alec nods, and Jace leaves, and tries to smile and look seductively into the blonde bride’s eyes as his mind keeps wandering to how dangerously invested he got into the way Alec’s husband treats him. Because deep down, he realizes, Alec deserves better. And Jace wants to give it to him. 

When the show ends and Jace finally gets to kiss Magnus and help him dress up to go to the final dinner the couples will have to share experiences, and Magnus relays the horror of the man-child Mr. Lightwood is and how he at least tried to set him straight, he can’t help but think that despite all of that, signing up for this shitshow might have been worth it. 

He tells the spiel about wonderful people and keeping in touch for the sake of television. The exchange numbers and it’s all for show. Jace knows Alec won’t call even if he hopes he will. 

What Jace expected, is there would be some crazy drama and probably ruined relationships in a show about swapping spouses. (Not his own, of course, Jagnus was a trademarked name for a perfect and steady relationship.) What Jace didn’t expect, is that Alec would actually call them. 

He’s not sure if Alec’s husband told him or if he found out that Magnus is a lawyer some other way but he’s ridiculously happy and relieved when Alec shows up to ask about divorce and custody battle that doesn’t end up happening because the dickhead Alec is leaving is all too happy to dump Rafe on Alec. He is, admittedly, even happier, though still not sure how it happened, when Alec ends up in his and Magnus’ bed. 

But a few years later, as he looks at Alec and Magnus sitting together on the couch, Rafe and Max playing together, he thinks that actually, that day when he looked at Alexander Lightwood in his house for the first time and had a strange feeling he belonged there… he was right, and maybe he should have expected it. Maybe it was destiny. 

**Author's Note:**

> No matter what you see on TV, better don't swap your spouses. Even for a week. In real life it's more likely to end in conflict than a threesome. Some things on TV aren't neccesarily a good idea. I know, shocking.  
> Also please stay home if you can and be safe in this quarantimes!


End file.
